North Korea claimed on Saturday that its recent series of missile fires is a “self-defense” measure in the face of US military threats.
In less than two weeks, the communist country has launched six projectiles sanctioned by the UN, the last two on Thursday.
Two days earlier, on Tuesday, Pyongyang fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and triggered an evacuation alarm on its territory.
Testing missile launches “is a regular and planned measure of self-defense to defend the country’s security and regional peace from direct military threats from USA that last more than half a century,” North Korea’s civil aviation agency said, according to state news agency KCNA.
The government agency released the statement after the International Civil Aviation Organization on Friday condemned rocket launches. Pyongyang of recent months and said that they were a danger to civil aviation.
North Korea considers that this resolution approved by this body is “a political provocation by the United States and its vassal forces to transgress the sovereignty of the DPRK”, the initials of the official name of North Korea.
The United States, South Korea and Japan have intensified their joint military exercises in the area in recent weeks.
For its part, Pyongyang conducted a record number of weapons tests this year and its leader Kim Jong Un declared the country’s nuclear status “irreversible.”
Analysts say that the communist country has taken advantage of the blockade in the United Nations due to tensions between Washington, Moscow and Beijing to accelerate its weapons program.
The intelligence services of South Korea and the United States have been warning for months of a possible new nuclear test by Pyongyang, which would be the first since 2017.
